Character List

Ralph - The novel’s protagonist, the twelve-year-old English boy who is elected leader of the
group of boys marooned on the island. Ralph attempts to coordinate the boys’ efforts to build a
miniature civilization on the island until they can be rescued. Ralph represents human beings’
civilizing instinct, as opposed to the savage instinct that Jack embodies.

Jack - The novel’s antagonist, one of the older boys stranded on the island. Jack becomes the
leader of the hunters but longs for total power and becomes increasingly wild, barbaric, and cruel
as the novel progresses. Jack, adept at manipulating the other boys, represents the instinct of
savagery within human beings, as opposed to the civilizing instinct Ralph represents.

Simon - A shy, sensitive boy in the group. Simon, in some ways the only naturally “good”
character on the island, behaves kindly toward the younger boys and is willing to work for the
good of their community. Simon represents a kind of natural goodness, as opposed to the
unbridled evil of Jack and the imposed morality of civilization represented by Ralph and Piggy.

Piggy - Ralph’s “lieutenant.” A whiny, intellectual boy, Piggy’s inventiveness frequently leads to
innovation, such as the makeshift sundial that the boys use to tell time. Piggy represents the
scientific, rational side of civilization.

Roger - Jack’s “lieutenant.” A sadistic, cruel older boy who brutalizes the littluns and eventually
murders Piggy by rolling a boulder onto him.

Sam and Eric - A pair of twins closely allied with Ralph. Sam and Eric are always together, and
the other boys often treat them as a single entity, calling them “Samneric.” The easily excitable
Sam and Eric are part of the group known as the “bigguns.”

The Lord of the Flies - The name given to the sow’s head that Jack’s gang impales on a stake
and erects in the forest as an offering to the “beast.” The Lord of the Flies comes to symbolize
the primordial instincts of power and cruelty that take control of Jack’s tribe.

Themes:
Civilization vs. Savagery
The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing impulses that
exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral
commands, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate
desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will. The conflict
between the two instincts is the driving force of the novel, explored through the dissolution of
the young English boys’ civilized, moral, disciplined behaviour as they accustom themselves to a
wild, brutal, barbaric life in the jungle. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that
Golding conveys many of his main ideas and themes through symbolic characters and objects.

He represents the conflict between civilization and savagery in the conflict between the novel’s
two main characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who represents order and leadership; and Jack, the
antagonist, who represents savagery and the desire for power.

As the novel progresses, Golding shows how different people feel the influences of the instincts
of civilization and savagery to different degrees. Piggy, for instance, has no savage feelings,
while Roger seems barely capable of comprehending the rules of civilization. Generally,
however, Golding implies that the instinct of savagery is far more primal and fundamental to the
human psyche than the instinct of civilization. When left to their own devices, Golding implies,
people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery, and barbarism. This idea of innate human evil is
central to Lord of the Flies, and finds expression in several important symbols, most notably the
beast and the sow’s head on the stake. Among all the characters, only Simon seems to possess
anything like a natural, innate goodness.

Loss of Innocence
As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to
cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the
sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. The painted savages in
Chapter 12 who have hunted, tortured, and killed animals and human beings are a far cry from
the guileless children swimming in the lagoon in Chapter 3. But Golding does not portray this
loss of innocence as something that is done to the children; rather, it results naturally from their
increasing openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always existed within them. Golding
implies that civilization can mitigate but never wipe out the innate evil that exists within all
human beings. The forest glade in which Simon sits in Chapter 3 symbolizes this loss of
innocence. At first, it is a place of natural beauty and peace, but when Simon returns later in the
novel, he discovers the bloody sow’s head impaled upon a stake in the middle of the clearing.
The bloody offering to the beast has disrupted the paradise that existed before—a powerful
symbol of innate human evil disrupting childhood innocence.

Symbols

The Conch Shell

Ralph and Piggy discover the conch shell on the beach at the start of the novel and use it to
summon the boys together after the crash separates them. Used in this capacity, the conch shell
becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the novel. The shell effectively governs
the boys’ meetings, for the boy who holds the shell holds the right to speak. As the island
civilization erodes and the boys descend into savagery, the conch shell loses its power and
influence among them. Ralph clutches the shell desperately when he talks about his role in
murdering Simon. Later, the other boys ignore Ralph and throw stones at him when he attempts
to blow the conch in Jack’s camp. The boulder that Roger rolls onto Piggy also crushes the conch
shell, signifying the demise of the civilized instinct among almost all the boys on the island.

Piggy’s Glasses
Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses represent the power of
science and intellectual endeavour in society. This symbolic significance is clear from the start of
the novel, when the boys use the lenses from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire.

The Signal Fire

The signal fire burns on the mountain, and later on the beach, to attract the notice of passing
ships that might be able to rescue the boys. As a result, the signal fire becomes a barometer of the
boys’ connection to civilization. In the early parts of the novel, the fact that the boys maintain the
fire is a sign that they want to be rescued and return to society. When the fire burns low or goes
out, we realize that the boys have lost sight of their desire to be rescued and have accepted their
savage lives on the island. The signal fire thus functions as a kind of measurement of the strength
of the civilized instinct remaining on the island.
The Beast
The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the primal instinct of savagery that
exists within all human beings. The boys are afraid of the beast, but only Simon reaches the
realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. As the boys grow more
savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel, the boys are treating it as
a totemic god. The boys’ behaviour is what brings the beast into existence, so the more savagely
the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become.

The Lord of the Flies

The Lord of the Flies is the bloody, severed sow’s head that Jack impales on a stake in the forest
glade as an offering to the beast. This complicated symbol becomes the most important image in
the novel when Simon confronts the sow’s head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling
him that evil lies within every human heart and promising to have some “fun” with him. (This
“fun” foreshadows Simon’s death in the following chapter.) In this way, the Lord of the Flies
becomes both a physical manifestation of the beast, a symbol of the power of evil, and a kind of
Satan figure who evokes the beast within each human being. Looking at the novel in the context
of biblical parallels, the Lord of the Flies recalls the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. In fact, the
name “Lord of the Flies” is a literal translation of the name of the biblical name Beelzebub, a
powerful demon in hell sometimes thought to be the devil himself.

The importance of the circle

There are several instances of this, but I want to focus specifically on the use of the circle and
how its purpose shifts within the text. In many parts throughout the book, the boys are arranged
together in a circle, for meetings, for hunting, for play, etc. Golding repeatedly uses the boys
gathered in a circle to illustrate that the very nature of the collective changes from security and
stability to exclusion and violence. There are good uses for the circle and end with the bad. At
the beginning of the novel, the boys gather in a circle for their meetings. Though far from
flawless, even from the beginning, this circle serves a mostly good purpose. The circle gives
them a forum to express their ideas and share their deepest fears. It gives them an illusion of
civilization and order, as well as a sense that they are not alone. Ralph is in charge of these
meetings and even he takes comfort in the circle, as he “looked for confirmation round the ring
of faces” (32). At its best, the circle represents safety and security. It gives the boys an
opportunity to be together for reassurance and community. Golding uses these brief instances of
harmony and fellowship to contrast harshly with how relationships on the island change by the
end of the novel. Other than their meetings, the boys also find a feeling of safety and security by
gathering together around their signal fire at the top of the mountain. In the company of each
other and in the warmth of the fire, “unkindness melted away. They became a circle of boys
around a camp fire” (67). Regardless of the fears of beasts or the increasing tensions between the
boys, the harmony of the circle combined with the comfort of the fire provides the boys with a
momentary feeling of well-being. We can get a sense that, despite the ongoing power struggle
and hurt feelings between Ralph and Jack, everything is fine for the boys in this exact moment.
Life is fine while they eat together and bask in the warmth of the fire. Golding uses this moment
to show the reader that the circle allows the boys to forget their troubles and differences briefly
because of the solace that their community offers. By the end of the novel, however, the circle
serves a much different purpose. Rather than providing the boys with belonging, it helps to
exclude. After the death of Piggy and the capture of the twins, Ralph goes alone to Castle Rock
where Jack and his hunters dwell. He hears dancing and knows that “Somewhere on the other
side of this rocky wall there would be a dark circle, a glowing fire, and meat. They would be
savoring food and the comfort of safety” (172). It is a scene very similar to the one previously
mentioned, except that this time someone is on the outside of the circle looking in rather than a
part of it. Ralph is not just alone, but alone and excluded from the comfort of the circle, which
makes his isolation that much more profound. With Ralph on the outside of the circle looking in,
Golding shows the reader how the collective can quickly shift its purpose from accepting and
supporting individuals to marginalizing and ostracizing them. The boys also utilize the circle for
the purpose of hunting pigs. Though by no means a necessity, hunting does provide them with
some extra nourishment. Hunting is only possible if the boys work together, and so Golding
mentions the circle and the collective again. The circle is the key weapon in their first successful
hunt, as “[the pig] turned back and ran into the circle bleeding […] the first blow had paralyzed
its hind quarters, so then the circle could close in and beat and beat” (68). The circle is used in
this instance as a means of killing - for nourishment, yes - but also partly for recreational
purposes. The boys clearly find great pleasure in hunting the pig. As their time on the island
passes, the hunting becomes more savage, brutal, and gruesome, hunting by way of a circle,
Golding shows that strength can be found in the collective. Though not always good, great things
can be accomplished using this collective strength. It is clear that the boys are hunting for more
reasons than just sustenance, especially when they start mock hunting each other for fun. As with
real hunting, their mock hunting employs a circle and allows them to do everything but kill their
fake pig. In one of many instances of mock hunting in the novel, the boys walk a fine line
between fun and malice. In one example of mock hunting, “Jack shouted. ‘Make a ring!’ The
circle moved in and round. Robert squealed in mock terror, then in real pain” (106). What starts
out as fun goes much too far and easily gets out of control. The killing of the pig is reenacted and
reveled in over and over by the boys. Even Ralph, who is supposed to be the responsible one
among the group, is drawn to the mock hunting. At one point, Ralph is “fighting to get near, to
get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering”
(106). The mock hunting is compelling evidence of how something like hunting, though not
entirely necessary or good in itself, can be perverted and used to derive a very dark, primal
pleasure. Eventually, it is the circle that allows for the boys to murder Simon. Up until this point,
none of the boys would ever dare to murder another human, but the anonymity that the circle
offers suddenly makes it very easy to do. Gathered in the circle, they lose their individuality and
“throb and stamp [like] a single organism” (140). This lack of individuality and conscience
allows them to commit violent acts that normally they would not do. The circle of boys becomes
a unique creature, a creature hungry to inflict pain. It gives them an opportunity to escape their
own humanity. When Simon wanders out of the forest to where this creature comprised of boys
is located, he is swallowed up by it. Golding describes how “the mouth of the new circle
crunched and screamed” and “the beast [Simon] was on its knees in the center, its arms folded
over his face” (141). He doesn’t describe it as the boys killing Simon, but as the circle killing
Simon. The circle becomes a fierce creature of its own that can commit violence as it wishes.
This vision of the pain individuals can inflict on others when caught up in the collective is
extremely haunting for the reader. During my investigation on circles and how their use changes
in the text, I finally grasped just how brilliant Golding is as a writer and why Lord of the Flies is
taught so widely. Something as simple as mapping when the boys are in a circle, a fairly subtle
detail, provided me with a very compelling reading of the novel. This could be done with any
number of symbols, objects, or characters, which is why I have an even greater appreciation for
Golding and for the novel than I did before.